Gdansk shipyard: Headed for the scrapheap of history?

The most surprising thing about the possible closure of the shipyard here may be how little popular outcry there has been thus far.

Poland is instead transfixed by the sudden collapse of its government and preoccupied with the departure of a million workers, most of them young, for jobs in Western Europe.

The Gdansk shipyard could go out of business if it is forced to pay back disputed state subsidies deemed illegal by European Union officials. But while the EU may be threatening the shipyard, it comes bearing much larger gifts for the country as a whole. From 2007 to 2013, Poland is set to receive $91.4 billion in aid from Brussels.